DCPA NEWS CENTER
Enjoy the best stories and perspectives from the theatre world today.
Enjoy the best stories and perspectives from the theatre world today.
Denver Center Education has announced the three winning plays for its seventh annual statewide AT&T High School Playwriting Competition, which this year drew 154 one-act plays for consideration from Colorado student writers.
The following plays will be presented together as a featured free event at next month’s 2020 Colorado New Play Summit:
After a week of in-house workshopping at the Denver Center with trained actors, educators and mentorship from both DCPA Teaching Artists and a professional playwright, the winning plays will have public readings at 9:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturday, February 22, in The Randy Weeks Conservatory Theatre. In addition, the three winning scripts each will have professional readings at their playwrights’ schools. The winning playwrights also will receive a $250 cash scholarship and complimentary passes to the Summit. In addition, each winner’s sponsoring teacher will receive $250 for books, supplies or other teaching tools for their classrooms.
Read more: Our full report on the 2019 student playwriting finalists
The 2019-20 AT&T High School Playwriting Workshop served 3,152 students with DCPA teaching artists conducting 165 playwriting workshops in 21 counties statewide. The judges, made up of artistic, literary and education professionals, read each submission as a blind draw.
“We are so thrilled to support burgeoning playwrights and any opportunity to encourage amazing writers to put their authentic voices in the world,” said Allison Watrous, Executive Director of Education and Community Engagement. “These writers are the brave next generation of the American Theatre and beyond, grappling with issues of our times including identity, climate change and the future.”
The coordinator of the DCPA’s student playwriting program is 2017 True West Award winner Claudia Carson.
(Listed alphabetically by title)
Brandon Guo, Peak to Peak Charter School
GOD: “You are a Christian, and so was your grandmother. In fact, almost 99 percent of our accepted people are legacy admits.”
Connor Yokley, Highlands Ranch High School
“Channel 7 recently got word that the … the, uh … the U.N. Climate Commission has declared … an urgent state. Of emergency. Eh… internationally.”
Meghan Frey, Estes Park High School
“We spend eight hours a day with these people for years, and yet we don’t really know each other. We all just show people what we want them to see, but they don’t know who we really are.”
The 2019-20 AT&T High School Playwriting Competition is sponsored by AT&T, Robert and Judi Newman Family Foundation with matching gifts from The Ross Foundation, June Travis and Transamerica.
In the video above, DCPA Senior Arts Journalist John Moore speaks with Executive Director of Education Allison Watrous and the student playwrights whose works were selected to be read at the 2019 Colorado New Play Summit. Video by David Lenk for the DCPA NewsCenter.